R. Han

I want to help a friend to design a permaculture balcony,

# history
In 2022 a spider mite infestiation started on some peas and cucumber and then spread to the perennial berry bushes (raspberry, currant),
which caused them to drop almost all of the leavesby the end of summer.
The herbs (sage, rosemary etc.) were also affected, but not to the point that their growth was inhibited.
Predatory mites were bought and released, but did not significanty help to reduce the spidermite population.
The spider mites came back every year after that :-/


# balcony layout
The balcony is oriented towards the sun and is overarched by another balcony obove it.
As spider mites like it dry this provides nice conditions for them.
Also there are side walls which recieve sunlight in the morning, respectively in the evening.
There is some shaded space underneath a table that might be used for elements that require a more cool/humid climate,
also the upper innen corners of the balcony recieve no direct sunlight.

Currently no other plants that the aforementions berry bushes and herbs.
The eastern inner wall (shade in the morning, some sun in the evening) has a birdhouse which is happily inhabted by great tits (Parus major)
every year.

# scope of this thread
Now my idea is to construct sufficent predatory habit and to wait for local predators to arrive on their own.
I intend to dedicate some of the pots (of the now dead plants) specifically for this purpose,
but also new (preferably wodden) construction ideas are welcome.

My wish for this thread is to brainstorm habitat requirements for predaory insects/anthropods and some ideas/techniques/elements that could be integrated in such a design to stasisfy these requirements.
I will try to collect them here in the first post for easier overrview.

# Elements

## Insect hotels
The most common thing i see are Insect hotels,
i suppose there are whole websites dedicated to those, so posting some links for what the self-builder should consider would be great.

## Insectary plants
While many predators (like wasps) do eat or parasite on other insects they have to rely on plants for their carbonhydrate intake.
Those plants usually have smaller and more accesible flowers like Yarrow (Achillea millefolium).
Permaculture teaches us to observe a draw our conclusion, i have seen many insects on Yarrow,
but as i not know how the predators of spider mite look like i am a bit lost here.
However i have seen what i think are parasitic wasps drink from Marjoram (Origanum majorana), so that would be something
to include in the list.

Actually stocking fish in a pond generally decreases quality of water, because you want to filter out nutrients (esp. phosphates and nitrates)
to keep the water clean/less habitable for bacteria.

Growing any type of plant (or algae) accumulates nutrients in the plant, which you can subsequently remove to also remove the nutrients.
Search for "Natural Swimming pond" or "Wetland filter" for more information on this.
If you prefer mechanical filters, search for "Slow sand filter".
I peronally think the best filter (because it can basically filter nuclear waste into drinking water) ist the mollison filter, but its complex to implement.

Anyway your chicken should not have direct access to the water, as they tend to pollute it.

r ranson wrote:PH is the easiest to fix, so I test it first.

Do you happen to have a link that explains how to do so?
When i was reading about acidifing soil for growing blueberries, i did not find a method with a reasonable permanence/cost ratio.
Thank you.

I must say it really put a smile on my face, when i read your name on the list of speakers for gathering in vukomeric. Looking forward to meet you there tomorrow.

Zoltán Korbel wrote:
More specifically what I want to know is how far do the roots of a let's say 5 feet = 153 cm tall living willow hedge spread horizontally, because it would determine how close to the willow fence I can grow annual and herbaceous plants.

Do not worry, any distance that allows you to conveniantly access the fence wihtout stepping in your veggies should be fine,
depending on what you plant.
I suggest planting the perennials between the living fence and the annuals to act as a root barrier.
You will figure out the details by permacultures best tool : Observation.

Tina Wolf wrote:
It is true that not much will grow under the willow except some herbs and vines.

This knowledge is applicable to a large tree which will cast a corresponding shadow.
The living fence we are talking about will probably be coppiced to a couple of feet.

Regarding the choice of willow, please consider that it is a wetland species,
therefore your veggies will benefit if water needs to be drawn away because of a watterlogged situation,
but if it already is a dry place, you might consider less thirsty species like poplar or even slower growing dryland species.
It depends on your context.

S. Brown wrote:A trick to keeping it clean looking is to mix in the clay with the sand, compacting it aggressively.

I don't get why to do this part. Won't this step make the clay more leaky?

Also what is "agressive" compaction? Regular usage of a sheepfoot-roller for example?

Rembrandt Hall wrote:Help needed!
if the hydro produces 1kilowatt  - according the seller - will it produce enough for a household of 2 people if covering that distance?

Distance is no issue except for the costs of a thick copper cables and their installation/maintenance.

If - and that is a big IF - the unit outputs 1 kw under ideal conditions, and IF you can provide those conditions, your peak useages in a typical household
will be manyfold higher. Think of running a hair dryer while the washing machine heats water, each usually have several kw.

You will have to buffer that.

The cheapest way to do so, is to be hooked up to the public power grid, and - if your local regalations allow it - even sell them your surplus energy.

If "on grid" is not possible, then you have to go "off grid", and this is more expensive than you think and also a long term liability(replacing batteries every few years etc.).

It could pay to get a professional to make an estimate of how big of an generator you can actually run in your situation,
and then decide what to do.

Joylynn Hardesty wrote:In my region, don't plant Comfrey in your driest spot. That plant is barely alive, dying back during our seasonal drought, waiting until spring to try again. Don't plant in full shade. They die. Plants in 6 hours of sun are more than twice the size of plants in 4 hours of sun.

Die back as in "will regrow when moisture is available" or as in "dead and will rot  when moisture becomes available"?

Mamalana Bliss wrote:N But how much do you learn?

I will repeat, what i should have read earlier, and also should have taken into consideration more seriously:
You know nothing, until you get your hands dirty.

Edit: I think online opens up the possibility to have the course with virtually any person with suffixient tehnology,
while in person faciliates communication.

Then again i did not have a PDC yet, so who am i to judge